Scenes from another successful Old North House & Community Tour and Homegrown Festival

Thanks to all who made this year’s Old North House & Community Tour and Homegrown Festival such a great success, especially tour committee chair, Maria Falconer (who somehow managed to evade all photographers, and, therefore, is not seen in any of our photos of the big day).  If you’d like to thank Maria, though, one option for consideration is to just stop in and buy something at Maria’s Rambles Gift Gallery & Boutique at 2611 N. 14th Street or from her online shop, Rambles.com.

The Homegrown Festival, the street party portion of the event, brought all sorts of fun to Crown Square, including live music, dance performances, refreshing beverages and snacks, arts and crafts booths, information from a variety sponsors and community partners, and exhibits inside Old North St. Louis Restoration Group’s Gallery.

It wouldn’t be a “House” and Community Tour without houses to show, and Old North specializes in a variety home sizes and styles.

One of the Habitat for Humanity Houses under construction at Clinton & N. 13th was on the tour.

Since Old North is also known for its gardens, of the private and community variety, we put those on tour, as well.

Tom Bratkowski had a chance to show the picnic table and benches he constructed for the 13th Street Community Garden.

In addition to the music and dance in the streets, the day provided opportunities to demonstrate various other arts initiatives.

The Old North Gallery featured photography of Benjamin Evans, as well as ONSLRG's before and after photos of historic buildings brought back to life from the brink of demolition.

Neighbors and visitors had a chance to see inside Northside Workshop, the soon to open art center at 1306 St. Louis Avenue.

Nancy & Ken Kranzberg (center) were present to view the progress they made possible at Northside Workshop, with Juan William Chavez (left), the artist who will run NSWS, and Sean Thomas of ONSLRG.

Contemporary Art Museum helped out with the opening of Northside Workshop, with Old North Grocery Co-op visible just across N. 13th Street from the new art center.

La Mancha Coffeehouse provided free cups of coffee to visitors to the tour.

Always a favorite part of the day, free ice cream courtesy of Crown Candy Kitchen (with Norah Ryan handling the scooping duties).

Perpetua Iron, a recently opened neighborhood business owned and operated by Old North resident Janet Sanders, was also on the tour.

An example of the ornamental iron items produced in Old North by Perpetua Iron.

The best part of the tour, however, is the chance to share with the world the warmth, friendliness, and community spirit of the people who live and work in Old North.

For more photos of the big day, take a look at our album on ONSLRG’s Facebook page by clicking HERE.

In addition to Maria, the list of others to thank could go on and on, but we should acknowledge the following:

• ONSLRG’s staff, Matt Fernandez, Jane Smith, and Sean Thomas;
• practicum students Michelle Wiegand, Becky Bitzer, Sheila Galvez, and Jennifer Gray;
• other planning committee members Vela Hermann & Thom Fletcher;
• Nevels Nevels for huge investment of time in laying out the tour booklet;
• Aida Rodriguez for bringing in the Lindy Hop and other social dancers;
• Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. and Ryan from UCBC;
• Officer Moran & other officers from the 4th & 5th police districts;
• Crown Candy Kitchen, especially Andy Karandzieff, for providing ice cream for all tour-goers and lunch fixings for the volunteers;
• numerous volunteers from within Old North, or friends of Old North, including Keith Marquard, John Thro, Curtis Berry, Kate Feit, Norah Ryan, Tino Ochoa, Nico Leone and Dave Eisenbraun;
• volunteer crews from Bank of America, FUEL for the City, and Step Up St. Louis!
• the generous residents who opened their homes and business owners who opened their spaces for visitors to see all that Old North has to offer, including: Janet Sanders of Perpetua Iron, Vela Vm Hermann & Chris Goetsch, Ben & Heidi Sever, Ernie & Jeannie Stanley, Doug & Marg Corey, Barbara Davis, Habitat for Humanity, Matt Fernandez, Tom & Susan Tschetter, James & Luz Maria Cox, Claire Wolff, Camille Clingan, Juan William Chávez & Kiersten Torrez of NSWS, Old North Grocery Co-op, including Sarah Kate Buckles and Melissa Breed, and the 13th Street Community Garden;
• La Mancha Coffeehouse for providing a free cup of coffee to tour visitors;
• Event sponsors:
• including Bank of America, Commerce Bank, Regions Bank, USBank, Reliance Bank, First National Bank, Duffe-Nuernberger Real Estate, M & I Bank (or BMO Harris), and Missouri Dept. of Agriculture;
• And, finally, thanks go to St. Louis 3Wheel Taxi for stepping up at the last minute to provide shuttle service when our previous shuttle commitment fell through!

Thank you again to all who put in so much time and effort to make the day possible and all who attended.

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Send This YouTube Link to Encourage Others To Come See Old North This Saturday

We’ve put together a brief, rapid-pace video of recent transformations in Old North as a way of enticing those who haven’t seen the neighborhood (or haven’t seen it in a while) to come on out to the Old North House & Community Tour this Saturday, May 19.  Take a look and please feel free to “like” it and send the link on to others if you think it conveys the dynamic pace and positive changes that have taken place in Old North over the past few years.

Thank you to Old North resident Joe Eisenbraun for allowing us to use his music in this video. For more about Joe and links to more of his music, check out our post from January 20, 2012.

If you’d like to pick up a pile of OId North House & Community Tour tickets to sell (or flyers or postcards to distribute), give us a call at the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group office at 314-241-5031.  Or if you’d just like to buy some tickets online via our secure PayPal account, click HERE.

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1 Week to Go: Old North House & Community Tour and Homegrown Street Festival on Sat., May 19

We’ve come a long way in the past 30 years.  In May of 1982 Old North St. Louis Restoration Group held its first house tour, featuring 3 occupied homes and 2 vacant city-owned buildings available for purchase.

This year, the Old North House & Community Tour will feature 8 historically rehabbed homes, 1 historically-sensitive relatively new home, 1 historic home in the midst of a complete rehab, 1 LEED-certified new Habitat for Humanity home, a neighborhood business that produces wrought iron fencing & other ornamental iron, a Crown Square commercial space, the neighborhood grocery co-op, a produce-growing community garden, and a soon-to-open neighborhood art center in a rehabbed 19th century building. Among the stops on the tour are 7 properties that previously have been recognized by Landmarks Association with “Most Enhanced” Awards.  And, back by popular demand, one of the stops on this year’s tour will be one of the three homes featured on the very first tour in 1982.  Come on out to find out which one.

Tickets are available for purchase online by clicking HERE or they can be purchased in person at Rambles Gift Gallery & Boutique (2611 N. 14th), Crown Candy Kitchen (1401 St. Louis Avenue), Old North Grocery Co-op (2718 N. 13th) or Old North St. Louis Restoration Group’s office (2700 N. 14th Street).

Because Old North is a community that embraces and celebrates diversity, we have two different flyers for this year’s tour.  Feel free to right-click and save the flyer below for forwarding as an invitation to all of your friends, family, and colleagues.

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Scenes from Brightside Blitz Clean-up in Old North

Thank you to all of the neighbors and other volunteers who came out today to help clean up debris and trash throughout Old North as part of the annual Brightside Blitz.

Among the volunteers caught in the act of cleaning up Old North’s alleys, streets, gardens and vacant lots were Dave Eisenbraun, Brian, Heidi Sever, and Gloria Bratkowski (pictured above, from left to right).

Below  is the “before” picture of the pile these volunteers cleared away, along with the back of the “No Dumping” sign which had been dumped on top of the pile. (photo courtesy of Heidi Sever)

Over in the Hebert Street Community Garden, aka the Johnnie Owens Garden, Jay Roberts and Eric Little (shown in the photo below) assisted Barbara Manzara with the re-staining and re-sealing the arbor.

Doug Corey cleared and chopped wayward trees and branches on Sullivan (above) and Ross Dorsey (below) worked the 13th Street Community Garden.

Thanks to all others who put in hours of hard work while managing to avoid the glare of cameras - today and on the numerous other days of service to the community!

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International Media Coverage of Old North in Cities Today

What do Toronto, Zurich, Budapest, and Old North St. Louis have in common? All are mentioned in an article on walkability and urban economic development published in Cities Today, a London-based magazine focused on urban sustainable development initiatives around the world.  Click HERE to read the online version of the article.

The article includes a photo of sidewalks being installed along the 1300 block of North Market during the construction phase of the North Market Place Homes development as an example of efforts to make the neighborhood more walkable.

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Upstream Theater Performances Coming to Old North Gallery Sun., April 15 & Sun., April 22

The award-winning Upstream Theater will bring two performances of its current production of “Conversations with an Executioner” to Old North St. Louis Restoration Group’s Gallery at 2700 N. 14th Street. The performances are scheduled for 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 15 and Sunday, April 22.

Upstream Theater was recognized by the Riverfront Times as “Best Theater Company in St. Louis” in their 2010 “Best of St. Louis” issue with the following description: “if you’re open to having your mind stretched and your complacency challenged, if you welcome storytelling that is a little less conventional, then Upstream Theater should have a valued place in your theatergoing life.”

Among the actors performing in “Conversations with an Executioner” will be Old North resident John Bratkowski.

Because of the gritty nature of the play which commemorates the 69th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and addresses the aftermath of Nazi war crimes, the play is not recommended for children under the age of 13.  Admission will be free for audience members between the ages of 13 and 17 and will be $5 for audience members 18 and older.  This price represents a significant discount on the ticket prices for performances of the play at another theater in Grand Center.  The producers wanted to bring the play to Old North because of the neighborhood’s history as a home for many Polish immigrants and several generations of their descendants.

Due to limited seating at the Old North Gallery, reservations are recommended, and can be made by sending an email to upstreamtheater@sbcglobal.net.

Arts programming at the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group’s Gallery is made possible in part by funding from the Regional Arts Commission.

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6 Years Later, Mullanphy Emigrant Home Still Stands

Six years ago today, on April 2, 2006, the story of the landmark Mullanphy Emigrant Home nearly came to an end.  After a devastating storm with tornadic winds hit the 1867 structure, causing the south wall to collapse, the city’s building division issued a demolition order.

With strong support from Old North residents and others from throughout St. Louis who cared about preserving our city’s architectural and cultural heritage, Old North St. Louis Restoration Group launched a campaign to get the City to rescind the order.  Based on a structural engineer’s report commissioned by ONSLRG which showed that the building was not in imminent danger of complete collapse, the City withdrew their order and gave ONSLRG time to find a way to stabilize and secure the building.

By November of  2006, ONSLRG ended up purchasing the historic building and began a fundraising effort to cover the anticipated $100-150,000 expense of rebuilding the south wall and stabilizing the building.  However, on March 31, 2007, these plans suffered a major setback, and the hopes of saving the Mullanphy building seemed to be dashed for good when another massive storm hit the structure, blowing through the opening at the south end, leading to more wall collapses along the east facing side and much of the north wall.

Although the Riverfront Times declared the preservation efforts to be “the Best Lost Cause” in their 2007 “Best of St. Louis” issue, ONSLRG was able to mobilize enough support from the community to raise nearly $80,000 in contributions and loans from approximately 200 individuals and organizations, such as Landmarks Association of St. Louis, Society of Architectural Historians, the St. Louis AIA chapter, and many others.*  Schlafly Bottleworks donated beer and space for an emergency fundraiser; former Aldermanic Board President Jim Shrewsbury sent out an appeal to all of his past contributors; and Missouri Preservation added the Mullanphy Building to their list of most endangered historic sites in the State of Missouri.   With contributions of labor, equipment, and supplies, contractors affiliated with the Masonry Contractors Association and construction oversight from E. M. Harris Construction Co., work on rebuilding the foundation at the south side of the building and completely rebuilding the south wall, large portions of the adjoining east wall, and the north end continued throughout 2007 and reached completion in 2008.

Today the Mullanphy Emigrant Home building stands as a reminder of how our city grew rapidly in the latter part of the 1800s by putting out the welcome mat for newcomers arriving at our city from all over the world and as a testament to the power of a determined community undeterred by seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Thank you again to all who contributed to this great cause and assisted ONSLRG with the stabilization and preservation efforts.  Although the economy has not helped with a full redevelopment of the building, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home has been preserved and secured and is ready for a new chapter.  If you’d like to discuss ideas for a redevelopment and return of the building to productive use, please contact the ONSLRG office at 314-241-5031.  And if you’d like to assist ONSLRG with our ongoing holding and maintenance costs, give us a call or make an online contribution by clicking HERE (and scroll down to the “Make a Donation to ONSLRG” section) - and be sure to enter “Mullanphy” in the special instructions area.

*It’s also worth noting, which we neglected to do in the original version of this post, that the ONSLRG Board of Directors (led at the time by John Burse) deserves credit for agreeing to let the organization’s staff spend so much time on this effort and for committing over $75,000 of the organization’s scarce funds to the stabilization, securing, insuring, paying taxes on, and other ongoing maintenance of the building.

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Old North Bustling with Activity, including Bike To My Lou and Volunteers from SLU’s Showers of Service and Dept. of Corrections

VOLUNTEERS ASSIST WITH CLEANING UP, SPRUCING UP, AND BOARD-UP TASKS

Old North neighborhood volunteers received considerable help today from students from St. Louis University and another group of volunteers brought to the neighborhood by the Missouri Department of Corrections’ Office of Probation & Parole.  SLU’s annual Showers of Service program is a day of service sponsored and planned by the SLU chapter of Alpha Phi Omega.  For several years now, this program has sent dozens of students to Old North St. Louis Restoration Group to be deployed throughout the neighborhood for various volunteer projects where they can work side by side with neighborhood residents on community improvement projects.  As shown in the photos below, this year’s range of activities included alley clean-ups, boarding up vacant buildings, clearing empty lots, and a lot of work in the neighborhood’s numerous community gardens.

ONSLRG's Community Development Specialist, Matt Fernandez, a SLU grad with a bachelor's degree in Urban Affairs and a Master's in Urban Planning & Real Estate Development, inspired the students with evidence of life & employment after SLU.

The results of the volunteers’ work can be seen all over Old North…

The Johnnie Owens Garden at the Hebert Street Community Garden

Aida Rodriguez appreciated the help she received at Wingmann Park

The quasi-free-range residents of the 13th Street Community Garden are enjoying the cleaned up conditions around their home

Thank you to Alpha Phi Omega at SLU, to the Dept. of Corrections’ Office of Probation & Parole, and to neighborhood residents, including but not limited to James & Luz Maria Cox & family; Keith Marquard, Aida Rodriguez, Ernie Stanley, Chris Goetsch, Vela Hermann, Graham Lane, Ben Sever, Matt Fernandez, Ross Dorsey, Thom Fletcher, and many, many others.

BIKE TO MY LOU BIKE RIDE PASSES THROUGH OLD NORTH

A large contingent of cyclists passed through Old North this afternoon as part of the Bike to My Lou bike ride.  The free community ride and festival took riders through some of downtown’s adjacent neighborhoods - and we thank the organizers and sponsors for including Old North on the itinerary!

HABITAT HOMES UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Meanwhile, work continues on the 12 Habitat for Humanity homes under construction at N. 13th and Clinton.

A GOOD DAY FOR BUSINESS

Businesses in Old North enjoyed the flow of customers brought in by the various events going on in the neighborhood and the beautiful spring weather.

La Mancha Coffeehouse

Therapy Boutique

Crown Candy Kitchen

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Scenes from Metro Theater Company’s Performance of Super Cowgirl & Mighty Miracle

Please join us Sunday (March 25) at 1 p.m. for another FREE performance of Metro Theater Company’s Super Cowgirl and Mighty Miracle at the Old North Saint Louis Restoration Group Gallery, 2700 N. 14th Street.

In the meantime, enjoy these scenes from today’s performance.

The play is great for young children and the cast are fantastic with interacting with the audience after the performance.  Thank you again to Metro Theater Company for bringing this to the community, and thank you to the Regional Arts Commission for making it possible for ONSLRG to host events such as this.

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March 24-25: Metro Theater Co. Performances of Super Cowgirl & Mighty Miracle at Old North Gallery

Please plan to join us next Saturday, March 24, or Sunday, March 25, for Metro Theater Company’s performances of Super Cowgirl and Mighty Miracle, a new play by award-winning playwright, Jose Cruz Gonzalez.  Both performances start at 1 p.m. and are free of charge.

Please spread the word and invite your neighbors, especially families with children.  This powerful and often humorous play is appropriate for audiences of all ages.  Click HERE for a PDF version of the flyer pictured above, which you can print and post or pass along to those you want to invite.

For information about the performances in Old North, please contact Old North St. Louis Restoration Group at 314-241-5031.  For more information about the play, contact Metro Theater Company at 314-997-6777 or visit their website at www.metrotheatercompany.org.

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